May 19, 2010

Reno Police Det. David Jenkins, who had previously taken the stand to testify about the rapes of two women, was back on the stand Wednesday May 19, 2010, this time to talk about disappearance of Brianna Denison and then her rape and murder. Marilyn Newton/RGJ / RGJ

James Biela was full of smiles Wednesday May 19, 2010 before the start of the sixth day of his trial for the 2008 murder and rape of Brianna Denison. / Marilyn Newton / RGJ

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Update at 5 p.m.: After James Biela was arrested, his girlfriend went to the Reno Police Department and met him in an interrogation room, said Det. David Jenkins.

On the video of that meeting, Carleen Harmon walked in sobbing, crying, with her hands on her head saying over and over: "Did you? Did you do it? Did you?" she asked, and then she walked to him and they hugged.

"Don’t let (their son) forget me," he told her. And then he said several times that he's sorry he f----d up.

"You can’t help me. At this point it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry I f---ed it up," Biela said. "It doesn’t matter."

"It does matter to me," she said.

"If I told you I did it you would still love me and be with me?" Biela asked.

"Fight, with what?" Biela asked.

"I’m sorry," Biela said, hugging her.

"I better go," she said.

"I’m sorry for everything," he said. "I’m sorry for being a f--- up. It doesn’t matter.I’m sorry."

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Update at 3:22 p.m. If you drew a circle around the sites of the three attacks, it would be slightly smaller than 400 yards in diameter, a police detective testified today in the James Biela murder and sexual assault trial.

“There was something about that neighborhood – the offender either worked or lived in the neighborhood or had some connection with that neighborhood,” Det. David Jenkins said of the University of Nevada, Reno area.

“If he struck again, he would likely strike in that same neighborhood,” Jenkins said, adding that they added more police patrols for that reason.

The October 2007 rape at the university parking garage, the December 2007 sexual assault near an apartment near campus, and the abduction of Brianna Denison from a university-area home in 2008 were linked in other ways as well, said Det. David Jenkins.

DNA evidence collected from the December assault and from a doorknob at the home from which Denison was taken matched, he said.

And after Denison’s was found, a DNA link was made between the profile from the December assault, the doorknob and sperm taken from Denison’s body, he said.

In the months that followed the discovery of Denison’s body on Feb. 15, 2008, police received more than 5,000 tips in their effort to find her killer, and they collected hundreds of DNA profiles, he said.

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In some instances, people came forward saying they thought their ex-spouse likely was the offender, he said.

More than 39,000 pages of documents were generated in the investigation of this case, he said. And state and federal law enforcement agencies from various parts of the country were involved, he said.

When police received a Secret Witness tip in November 2008 saying they should look at James Biela, police took notice, Jenkins said.

Biela allegedly had an interest in thong underwear, he drove a truck that matched the truck in the December attack, and his driver’s license photo looked similar to the sketch provided by the October victim, Jenkins said.

“You put all that together and this person shoots up to the top of the list,” Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler said, and Jenkins agreed.

The location of the field where Denison’s body was found was significant as well, Jenkins said. Biela had worked at EE Technologies, a business next to the field, and his girlfriend worked at a business that was “a stone’s throw” from the intersection next to the field, he said.

The detectives met with Biela’s girlfriend and asked permission to take a DNA sample from the son she shared with Biela, and she agreed.

Biela was arrested Nov. 25, 2008.

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Update at 2:28 p.m. She never would have left without her cell phone.

As the Reno police began investigating the disappearance of Brianna Denison on Jan. 20, 2008, they tried to determine whether she left on her own or had been abducted, Det. David Jenkins said today in the James Biela murder trial.

Jenkins said he met with Brianna Denison’s mother, Bridgette, and concluded that the fact that Brianna’s phone was left behind suggested she did not leave voluntarily.

“Ms. Denison described her daughter as not prone to unusual behavior,” he said. “Ms. Denison said she couldn’t fathom her daughter could go anywhere without her cell phone.”

Bridgette Denison also told the detective that her daughter was petite and was sensitive to the cold, he said.

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“She said she couldn’t fathom her going outside at that time of year dressed only in a T-shirt and sweat pants.”

After going through Brianna Denison’s overnight bag, they determined that she wore “a thin, strapped, sleeveless blouse with the word Bindi on the back,” he said. She also wore “a well-worn and stained pair of pink sweatpants, cotton,” he said.

Left behind was a purse containing her wallet with credit cards and her driver’s license, sunglasses, lip balm and lotion, Jenkins said. Her overnight bag had clothing and cosmetics, he said.

“So she has no shoes, no coat, No telephone. No way to get around. Just gone,” said Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler.

“That’s correct,” Jenkins said.

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Update at 11:45 a.m. A police officer who arrived at the South Reno field where Brianna Denison’s body was found testified today that it appeared that she had been there “for a period of time.”

“There was decomposition, on the head and face,” said Officer Victor Ruvalcaba, testifying in the James Biela murder and sexual assault trial. “There was some deterioration of the skin tissues.”

Forensic pathologist Ellen Clark testified yesterday that she could not say how long Denison had been dead. But during the autopsy, Clark said she found some materials in Denison’s stomach that would have been consistent with the French fries and milk shake she had eaten at Mel’s Diner the night she disappeared.

Denison had gone to a concert in Reno on the night of Jan. 20, 2008. She and her friends went to Mel’s Diner and then went back to her friend’s house. Denison was last seen on a couch at about 4 a.m. and was sending text messages to her boyfriend until 4:23 a.m.

Her body was found in the field Feb. 15, 2008. Biela is charged in her rape and death, as well as two other sexual assaults.

Ruvalcaba photographed the body – nude except for a pair of orange socks with yellow flowers -- in the field, and collected evidence, including two pairs of thong underwear. In court, he put on rubber gloves and pulled the thong underwear out of an evidence bag to show the jury.

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The underwear had been cut into pieces so that investigators could analyze certain parts, he said.

While Ruvalcaba testified about how police removed the socks and put Denison’s body in a bag to be brought to the coroner’s office, Bridgette Denison, Brianna’s mother, stood and walked to the courtroom doors. She paused, leaning on the wall, and then walked out, followed by several of her friends.

On the screen before the jury was a large photograph of Brianna Denison's legs, from the calf down, with the orange socks on her feet.

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Update at 11:09 a.m.: After his worker came back to the office and reported he had just found something disturbing in a vacant field, EE Technologies manager Scott Ferris testified today in the James Biela murder trial that the two men walked out and retraced the worker’s footsteps.

Alberto Jimanez testified yesterday that he had spotted the body, later identified as missing college student Brianna Denison, near his business on Double R Boulevard in south Reno on Feb. 15, 2008, and walked back to the office to tell his manager.

Biela had worked at EE Technologies in 2002.

“I walked up to the ditch and I got close enough – 5 feet or so, and I looked down and observed what was basically a dead body,” Ferris said. “She was a young white female. She was naked except for socks. There was an old dead Christmas tree that was placed over the body.”

Her body was flat on its back, he said, “the face was pointed up to the sky.”

There was no flesh on the face – animals had been there, he said.

“The rest of the body looked like a body,” Ferris said. “The face from the neck up looked different. You could see – the teeth were very bright white. You could see the teeth distinctly.”

Ferris said he took out his cell phone and called the police.

He also said he did not know Biela when he worked for the company. His employment with EE Technologies lasted only two to two and a half months, Ferris said.

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Update at 6:58 a.m.: More testimony from detectives and crime scene investigators is expected today in the James Biela murder and sexual assault trial as the prosecution links Biela to the rape and strangulation of Brianna Denison in 2008.

The trial begins at 10:30 a.m. today because Judge Robert Perry must hear a list of criminal cases before the trail begins.

The prosecution is expected to call DNA experts and investigators who processed evidence collected when Denison's body was found in a South Reno field on Feb. 15, 2008. Yesterday, a forensic pathologist said Denison had been raped and strangled.

Biela is charged in the Denison case, and with sexually assaulting two other college students in late 2007.